Belongs within: Tabanomorpha.
Contains: Bouvieromyiini, Chrysopsini, Diachlorini, Tabanini, Pangoniini, Scionini.
The Tabanidae, horse flies, are a group of medium-sized to large flies, females of which commonly feed on vertebrate blood. Males and females of this family are readily distinguished by the eyes being holoptic in males but distinctly separated in females.
Characters (from Pechuman & Teskey 1981): Moderate to large flies, 6-30 mm long, without bristles. Head large; eyes large, often brightly patterned, holoptic in male, separated by frons in female. Antenna porrect and composed of scape, pedicel, and flagellum; flagellum usually consisting of a larger basal portion and terminal annulations usually numbering four to eight but sometimes as few as two. Palpus composed of two segments; basal palpal segment usually rather small; other palpal segment usually rather long and curved downward in female, often inflated near base. Proboscis stout and rigid; mandible and maxilla of female often styliform and adapted for piercing, sometimes absent in species that are not bloodsuckers. Thorax large; notopleural lobe prominent; scutellum without spines or macrotrichia. Legs rather stout; apical spurs present on mid tibia, absent on fore tibia, present or absent on hind tibia; tarsi each with three pads formed by pulvilliform empodium located between two pulvilli. Wing venation with as many as 11 veins reaching margin (Sc, four branches of R, three branches of M, CuA1, CuA2, A1), C extending around wing, cells br, bm, and d conspicuous, and cell cup usually closed near wing margin; calypter large. Abdomen broad, with seven segments usually visible; terminalia of both sexes usually inconspicuous; male with gonocoxites fused with sternite 9, with gonostylus single or partially divided, aedeagus and associated pair of slender filamentous recurved aedeagal tines enclosed in a sheath apparently derived from parameres, tergite 9 entire or divided, tergite l0 absent, cercus flattened, round to oval or somewhat pointed; female usually with tergite l0 divided, with sternite 8 shield-shaped, and with cercus one-segmented. Larva fusiform or more or less expanded posteriorly or anteriorly, comprising 11 body segments and completely retractile head capsule; head capsule elongate, subcylindrical, tapering anteriorly, features including semitubular cranium, paired tentorial arms attached anteriorly to inner dorsal surfaces of cranium and appearing to be free posteriorly, three-segmented antennae, median down-curved labrum, mandibular-maxillary sclerites including maxillary palpi, and labium closing head capsule ventrally; mandibles each with central canal for excretion of paralytic enzyme, linked with subdorsal brushes of spines that are erected to anchor head within host when mandibles strike downward; body without projecting appendages on thoracic segments, with annular rings of small tubercles and crenulate frills or with prolegs on abdominal segments; respiratory system functionally metapneustic.
<==Tabanidae | i. s.: JapenoidesBLM02 | MesopangoniusRL09 | ChasmiaO98 | ChalybosomaO98 | GressittiaO98 |--Scepsidinae [Scepsidini]M54 | |--Adersia oestroidesM54 | |--Scepsis nivalisM54 | |--BraunsiomyiaM54 | `--LesneusM54 |--ChrysopsinaePT81 | |--BouvieromyiiniPT81 | |--ChrysopsiniPT81 | `--RhinomyziniM54 | |--Tabanocella denticornisM54 | |--OrgizomyiaM54 | |--ThriambeutesM54 | |--SphecodemyiaM54 | |--Gastroxides aterM54 | |--RhinomyzaM54 | |--ThaumastoceraM54 | `--GuyonaM54 |--TabaninaePT81 | | i. s.: ‘Pangonia’ luridaR00a | | ‘Pangonia’ ocellusR00b | |--DiachloriniPT81 | |--TabaniniPT81 | `--HaematopotiniPT81 | |--Heptatoma bimaculataM54, G20 [=Tabanus (Heptatoma) bimaculatusG20] | |--HippocentrumM54 | `--HaematopotaPT81 | |--H. americanaPT81 | |--H. equorumR26 | |--H. pinicola Stuckenberg 1975P92 | `--H. pluvialis (Linnaeus 1758)WT11, L58 [=Tabanus pluvialisG20] `--PangoniinaePT81 | i. s.: Palaepangonius eupterus Ren 1998R98 | EopangoniusGE05 | Scaptiella apertaM54 | Dicrania Macq. 1838R00a | |--D. cervus (Wiedem. 1828) [=Pangonia cervus; incl. P. comprehensa Walker 1850, P. ramicornis ms]R00a | `--D. furcata (Wiedem. 1828) [=Pangonia furcata]R00a | Apocampta Schiner 1866R00a | `--*A. nigra Schiner 1866R00a | Cadicera Macq. 1855R00a | |--*C. rubramarginata Macq. 1855R00a | |--C. chrysostigma (Wiedem. 1828) [=Pangonia chrysostigma]R00a | |--C. crassipalpis (Macq. 1838) [=Pangonia crassipalpis]R00a | `--C. melanopyga (Wiedem. 1838) [=Pangonia melanopyga]R00a |--PangoniiniPT81 |--ScioniniPT81 `--PhilolichiniM54 |--Philoliche aethiopicaEN20 |--OmmatiosteresM54 |--MetapharaM54 |--NuceriaM54 |--StenopharaM54 |--Dorcaloemus compactusM54 |--PharaM54 |--SubpangoniaM54 `--BuplexM54 |--B. albifaciesM54 `--B. suavusM54
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[BLM02] Blagoderov, V. A., E. D. Lukashevich & M. B. Mostovski. 2002. Order Diptera Linné, 1758. The true flies (=Muscida Laicharting, 1781). In: Rasnitsyn, A. P., & D. L. J. Quicke (eds) History of Insects pp. 227–240. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht.
[EN20] Eggli, U., & R. Nyffeler (eds) 2020. Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Monocotyledons 2nd ed. Springer.
[G20] Goldfuss, G. A. 1820. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie pt 1. Johann Leonhard Schrag: Nürnberg.
[GE05] Grimaldi, D., & M. S. Engel. 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press: New York.
[L58] Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis revised 10th ed. vol. 1. Laurentii Salvii: Holmiae.
[M54] Mackerras, I. M. 1954. The classification and distribution of Tabanidae (Diptera). I. General review. Australian Journal of Zoology 2 (3): 431–454.
[O98] Oosterbroek, P. 1998. The Families of Diptera of the Malay Archipelago. Brill: Leiden.
[PT81] Pechuman, L. L., & H. J. Teskey. 1981. Tabanidae. In: McAlpine, J. F., B. V. Peterson, G. E. Shewell, H. J. Teskey, J. R. Vockeroth & D. S. Wood (eds) Manual of Nearctic Diptera vol. 1 pp. 463–478. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada.
[P92] Poinar, G. O., Jr. 1992. Life in Amber. Stanford University Press: Stanford.
[R98] Ren, D. 1998. Flower-associated Brachycera flies as fossil evidence for Jurassic angiosperm origins. Science 280: 85–88.
[RL09] Ren, D., C. C. Labandeira, J. A. Santiago-Blay, A. Rasnitsyn, C. Shih, A. Bashkuev, M. A. V. Logan, C. L. Hotton & D. Dilcher. 2009. A probable pollination mode before angiosperms: Eurasian, long-proboscid scorpionflies. Science 326: 840–847.
[R00a] Ricardo, G. 1900a. Notes on the Pangoninae of the family Tabanidae in the British Museum collection. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 7, 5: 97–121, pl. 1.
[R00b] Ricardo, G. 1900b. Notes on the Pangoninae of the family Tabanidae in the British Museum collection (concluded). Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 7, 5: 167–182.
[R26] Risso, A. 1826. Histoire naturelle des principales productions de l’Europe méridionale et particulièrement de celles des environs de Nice et des Alpes maritimes vol. 5. F.-G. Levrault: Paris.
[WT11] Wiegmann, B. M., M. D. Trautwein, I. S. Winkler, N. B. Barr, J.-W. Kim, C. Lambkin, M. A. Bertone, B. K. Cassel, K. M. Bayless, A. M. Heimberg, B. M. Wheeler, K. J. Peterson, T. Pape, B. J. Sinclair, J. H. Skevington, V. Blagoderov, J. Caravas, S. N. Kutty, U. Schmidt-Ott, G. E. Kampmeier, F. C. Thompson, D. A. Grimaldi, A. T. Beckenbach, G. W. Courtney, M. Friedrich, R. Meier & D. K. Yeates. 2011. Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108 (14): 5690–5695.